Minnis' illegally cover child sexual abuse for a relative

It would seem that if you're in the Minnis clan--they'll do an awful lot to scuttle your bad behavior. Apparently even behavior bad enough to be considered child sexual abuse.

According to information uncovered in an investigation by FuturePAC, John and Karen Minnis paid off a 17 year old girl who worked in their Hillsboro restaurant after John's brother Tuck consistently sexually harassed and abused her in the workplace. Worse, this payoff to settle her civil claim stemmed from an incident in Tuck's apartment where he engaged in unwanted touching of her in a sexual away.

According to a legal analysis of the case facts by attorney Marc Blackman, the Minnis were legally obligated to report Tuck's behavior, and failed to do so:

As to the criminal law issues presented by the materials I reviewed, my conclusions are:

1. The facts recited in the complaint in Vega set forth allegations of child sexual abuse.

2. The principals of Little John’s Pizza Co., LLC recognized that the complaint in
Vega provided reasonable cause to believe that Tuck had committed sexual offenses against Andrea.

3. As a public official, John Minnis had a duty under ORS 419B.010 immediately to report them to the Department of Human Services or a law enforcement agency in Washington County, Oregon.

4. John Minnis and Little John’s Pizza Co., LLC’s payment of $20,000 to Andrea combined with the failure to make the report required by ORS 419B.010 in and of themselves appear to be insufficient to establish the offenses of bribing a witness or tampering with a witness.

John Minnis was a POLICE OFFICER and a public official. I don't rightly know how he could possibly say he didn't know he was obligated to report this to the cops.

To put a fine caveat here, there is no way to obtain information directly showing whether or not John or Karen Minnis reported Tuck to the police. Anything like that would be sealed. However, there is no criminal investigation or criminal court documents against Tuck on this matter, so its more than reasonable to believe that neither of them reported it.

As I understand it, the statue of limitations on reporting these types of incidents is 18 months. Legally it would seem that the Minnis' are in the clear. I also don't know why the 17 year old didn't report it, but she wasn't legally obligated as the Minnis' were.

The legal documents and complete Blackman legal analysis are here.

Blackman's conclusion:

The information in the files in the Vega and Minnis cases reflects legitimate allegations of child sexual abuse by Tuck Minnis. It does not appear that these allegations were reported to appropriate law enforcement officials as required by Oregon’s Child Abuse Reporting Law and hence were never properly investigated. Conversely, it appears that Little John’s Pizza Co., LLC and John Minnis paid money to secure the dismissal of a civil case that the Washington County Circuit Court and the Oregon Supreme Court found to involve only Tuck Minnis’ private sexual mistreatment of Andrea. These circumstances raise questions about the purpose of that payment, especially in combination with the violation of the mandatory reporting law. Whether they amounted to the more serious offenses of bribing or tampering with a witness, however, cannot be determined from the available information.

(Bold emphasis--Carla)

This is an ugly, disgusting story made worse by the fact a police officer and state legislator (and the potential Oregon House Speaker) didn't report their dirtbag relative to the police.

This is a complete and total violation of the public trust.